IR TV Review: STAR TREK - LOWER DECKS - EPISODE 7 (“Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”) [Paramount+-S2]

The aspect of expectation is balanced in an idea of what is acceptable but what is expected and inferred. In Episode 7 of S2 of "Star Trek Lower Decks" entitled "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie", the focus moves a little bit up from Lower Decks showing an interesting subterfuge that befuddles Billups, the chief engineer. It is a funny progression that couldn't take place in the normal Star Trek live action universe because it is more slapstick than anything. However it does take on some lunacy that wouldn't have been out of place in certain more cheesy aspects of TOS. To give away too much would spoil the episode but Billups is visited by his mother (different than Boxwanna Troi for sure) but the manipulation works in the same twisted logic. But what makes it connective is the Orion Tendi and her worry for Rutherford.

Again it plays to the slapstick but the bound between them keeps getting stronger and that is the essence of heart, even when a variety of the crew, both above and below, learn that they have been played. Meanwhile on a different mission, Boimler & Mariner do an almost Galileo Seven mission but with a supercomputer bent on controlling the universe if he can just access a computer system. The push back-and-forth and the notion of trust which reflects in the almost Darwinism of volleys between the two lead characters is more stake-filled than it has usually been and points to an interesting and building flaw of character in Mariner which will eventually, animation and comedy be damned, come to a head which will need to be addressed with a sense of comeuppance. But it is fun especially in the way the character work is building with the 4 main characters to see where they will end up. Billups though might not always have Paris. B

By Tim Wassberg